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Saudi remains behind bars after $2M bond posted

Saudi remains behind bars after $2M bond posted

Photo by:

The Associated Press

This undated booking mug shot released by Warrensburg Police Department shows Ziyad Abid, a former University of Central Missouri student from Saudi Arabia accused of paying his roommate to kill a local bar owner. Abid is still sitting in a jail cell nearly two months after a Missouri judge refused $2 million sent by the Saudi Government to cover his bond.

Photo by:

The Associated Press

This undated photo provided by Randy Suhr shows popular Warrensburg, Mo. bar owner Blaine Whitworth, who was killed in September 2012. Former bar employee Reginald Singletary Jr. admitted to the killing but told investigators his roommate Ziyad Abid had paid him to do it, according to court documents.

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WARRENSBURG, Mo. — Ziyad Abid was a Missouri college student aspiring to become a pilot like his father back home in Saudi Arabia when he was accused of paying his roommate to kill a local bar owner. The judge set bond at $2 million, completely out of reach for his family — but not for the Saudi government.

The money came in. Yet two months later, Abid remains jailed because a judge is refusing to let him out. The judge acknowledged he may be violating the Missouri Constitution, which allows suspects to be held without bond only in capital murder cases.